Eye of the Beholder
by Kestrel1
Summary: Scott's dream has temporarily come true...


Scott frowned. The ultimate challenge was before him. Find his glasses in a completely dark room. He had been helping Kitty and Rogue with their homework and he must have fallen asleep, and now he couldn't find his glasses in the pitch blackness. He felt his way around the room, keeping his eyes tightly closed, until he was startled by a scream. And a kick below the belt.  
He doubled over, but had the sense to turn his head as his eyes popped open. In a blinding flash of red, he blew out the window. As soon as he closed his eyes once again, he heard more screaming. "Scott?! Ah'm so sorry!" Rogue said. "What the heck was that?!" Kitty cried, jumping out of bed. CRACK.  
"Oh no," Scott said, knowing full well what the noise was. Realizing what had happened, Kitty began apologizing profusely. If Scott didn't have a spare pair of glasses, he was screwed. "Good night, girls," Scott said, trying hard not to lose his temper. The girls showed him the door and he delicately walked out of the room.  
He walked down the dimly lit hallway, one hand against the wall and one hand near his crotch, hoping he had an extra pair of ruby-quartz shades in his room. Suddenly a noise right under his nose made him jump. "Shhh," Kurt said, putting a furry hand in front of his friend's eyes. "Kurt, can you check my room for another pair of my shades?" In a puff of smoke, Kurt was gone. He came back with negative search results.  
"Vhat vill you do now?"  
"I guess I'll have to wear my Cyclops visor full-time."  
"Even to school?"  
"Ah crap. Didn't even think of that."  
After a moment, Scott asked Kurt to accompany him to the Danger Room, which is where he had left his visor. Once there, the two wide-awake boys challenged each other to a competitive simulation in the Danger Room. The Danger Room was soundproof, so they didn't have to worry about waking up the whole institute.  
During the furious battle, Cyclops and Nightcrawler teamed up to take out the lasers mounted on the ground. Cyclops severed the power lines that went to the gun and Kurt flipped over it and yanked the barrel down so it couldn't fire. The gun's rotating mechanism was jammed, and it clicked and shook in Kurt's direction, but it was no danger. The simulation ended, and both X-Men turned to leave the room.  
At that very moment, a gear in the gun broke, whipping the rotating piece into the back of Scott's head with scary force. "Scott? SCOTT!" Kurt screamed as his friend hit the floor motionless.  
Scott's eyes fluttered open. It was daylight. "My head," he winced, rubbing the back of his skull. Everyone was in the room, so he guessed he wasn't late for school yet. "Sorry, Professor," he said, "I should've been more careful." But there was something wrong with this picture. Everyone was staring at Scott like he was a zoo animal or something.  
He slowly raised his hand to his face and put his hand in front of his eyes. No sunglasses. No visor. His power was gone. He looked at Jean, eyes wide with panic. But she was smiling. "Scott, do not be alarmed," Professor Xavier said, "Your power is not gone. You can control it now." Scott Summers' jaw hit the floor. When he was a little boy, he had been told, he hurt his head. For that reason he could never control the optic bursts that made him a mutant.  
Scott got up without a word and walked over to a mirror in his room. He still saw in red, but...he could see the real color of his eyes. He put his hand to his face again, this time because he thought he might cry. He felt Jean hug him from behind.  
"It might not be permanent," the Professor informed Scott over breakfast. He nodded, completely in awe of the situation and not really paying attention. He put his visor in his pocket on the way out the door, though.  
At school, people were amazed. "You seein' what I'm seein'?" Todd asked Lance. "I don't believe it," he replied, "Summers without his glasses. I wonder if he lost his power or something." Even Scott's closest friends had never seen him without his glasses. "Dude, all this time I thought you were blind or something," one guy said.  
After dismissal, the Brotherhood decided to confront Scott on the matter. "Hey Summers," Fred called. He liked Scott and Jean the least out of all the X-Men. "Lost your glasses?" Lance, Todd and Pietro came in behind their comrade. Then Scott's eyes began glowing. "Hey, hey, easy!" Lance said, "He just asked you a question!"  
Catching up with his friends, Scott met with some bad news: "Aw man, my ride!" His car had broken down. So he and his friends walked home. Along the way, Kurt BAMFed next to Kitty and startled her into playing tag with him. But not too far away, someone was watching the X-Men at play.  
He had messed up Scott's car; that had been part one of his plan. Then he created some other disturbance to keep Logan busy while the others were at school. Now it was Sabretooth's time to strike. Mystique had promised him Wolverine on a silver platter if he destroyed the other X-Men.  
In the blink of an eye he exploded out of hiding and was upon them. With a roar he mowed down Evan and Jean Grey, then turned to lunge again. But Kitty had grabbed Kurt by the holographically hidden tail and phased them both through Sabretooth's attack. Scott caught Sabretooth right in the chest with a full-force beam. But the monster of a mutant didn't seem even slightly hurt.  
Rogue crept slowly up behind him, but before she could touch him he spun around and leveled her. Scott fired again, and again Sabretooth barely flinched. He started to panic. What if his powers weren't what they used to be? Before he knew it, Sabretooth had him by the throat and slammed him up against a tree. Scott kicked his legs and tried to break Sabretooth's tightening hold on his neck.  
Feeling more than a little dizzy, Scott blasted Sabretooth right in his eyes. The larger mutant roared and backed away an inch, but did not release Scott. The intense beam had stunned Sabretooth, but it looked to have no lasting effect as he bared his fangs and laughed in Scott's face.  
With the lack of blood getting up to his head, Scott's skull began to throb. Sabretooth watched in amusement as the boy's eyelids started fluttering. "Sweet dreams," he said. Suddenly, Scott's eyes popped open and BOOM!  
The blast caught Sabretooth right in the eyes and almost bent him in half backwards. The mighty mutant hit the pavement in a daze. Jean, Evan, Rogue, Kurt and Kitty approached Scott, who was on his knees with his hands trembling over his face. "Kurt," he said, his voice muffled by his hands, "Get my visor out of my pocket. I'm gonna take my hands away, and you put it on ASAP."  
Kurt did so, and Cyclops stood up. He tried adjusting the knob on the side of his visor, but his power was to the point where a red glow could be seen outside the visor. Scott looked at the ground. Not even a whole day as a normal kid. Now it seemed his power was more out of control than ever. But, as he cast a glance over at the unconscious Sabretooth, he decided that it wasn't so bad.  
"....You mean me losing control had nothing to do with Sabretooth?" Scott repeated. "That's right," the Professor said, "I said that your control might only be temporary. But it did happen at a rather convenient time. And as for your amplified optic power, it should be back to its normal strength in a few days." Scott had gone from one extreme to another. He now had to keep his visor on even when he slept, until his powers calmed down, and he had some extreme headaches to look forward to.  
"How're you doing?" Jean sat down next to Scott and asked him later that night.  
"OK, I guess."  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah, don't worry about it. It's probably better this way."  
"Scott, you don't always have to be so...uptight. You've got to be disappointed."  
He sighed. "I am, Jean, but it was good while it lasted and no matter what happens I'm still a mutant, and I'm still me."  
"You're right," she said. "Now if only you could show a little more emotion like that when there's not a life-changing crisis going on...Scott?"  
She waved her hand in front of his visor. He had fallen sound asleep with his head on her shoulder. 


End file.
